Archive for the ‘House’ Category

Once was a time when a roof was a roof. Mostly it just sat up there to keep the rain off, but more importantly, it looked like a roof. A roof would hold itself in such a way, with its jaunty gables, casual hips and firm ridges, to let the world know that this house is a house. A noble task indeed. Yet, for the most part, a roof would do precious little to enliven the warren of rooms below.

This low maintenance, contemporary four bedroom house located in Concord, Sydney, completed in May 2016, has been designed to showcase the owners’ love for concrete and to provide more space and greater amenity for their family of four.

The clients were after a new contemporary house that would make better use of their existing site than their tired, red brick cottage. The clients own and operate a formwork business, which in turn has garnered them a great love and appreciation for concrete and wanted their new house to feature this throughout.

328 Euclid Avenue is an urban infill site in downtown Toronto. Dean Goodman and Janna Levitt designed the house for their own use on a standard 20 foot wide downtown lot. Their intention was to build a small house of approximately 1,550 sq. ft., which would use a pragmatic approach to green building practices. It is two storeys high plus a basement, and utilizes all of this space to maintain a small footprint on the lot. The layout anticipates the changing needs of a family with teenagers and how the house may evolve over time as the children grow up and leave home. Modest in size, the main floor has an open floor plan of approximately 16’ x 55’ with large sliding doors at the front and back. This, coupled with a 12 foot ceiling height, contributes to the feeling of a generous interior larger than its actual size. Large windows allow for excellent natural light throughout the entire house and provide a sense of space, helping to moderate the long dark Toronto winter.

Acquisition of an adjoining site made possible a new extension to an existing Victorian period house in Brondesbury, North London, which had stabling at ground floor level originally. This enabled a doubling of the original volume and transformation into a stunning contemporary home for the two occupants.

The parents of a close-knit, multi-generational family wanted a quiet and easily maintained urban retreat as a comfortable place for their family to enjoy a variety of experiences, alone or together, particularly outdoors. They were also extremely interested in land stewardship. In response, LGA Architectural Partners master planned the family’s existing home into an unusual and holistic environment that exemplifies a new form of luxury: a non-material and restorative environment that is designed to foster connections with both family and nature. In an affluent area of Toronto and on the bank of a tributary of the Don River, the property is unique, a blurring of indoor and outdoor spaces that engage the family with their setting while also fostering biodiversity and wellness.

What started out as a relatively minor remodel of a modest bungalow evolved over the course of construction into a new 2,500 s.f. house, with the existing foundation and footprint as the only original elements. The Bojanics acted as owner-builders, keeping construction costs to a bare minimum. The end result was a uniquely collaborative effort; one where the design was worked out on a day-to-day basis during construction in a manner that bordered on improvisation.